The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1887-08-26
The Thugs Of d

hoJei, the nall way house" OF lifelong
tourney from Bombay to Calcutta,
nov that you've seen the ruins OF
the Hindu citadel, and been over the
native cantonment, and visited the
temple on the bill yonder, and gone
round the marble rocks of the Ner-
buddha, there's nothingleft for you to
see here except the Thugs"
who are these Thugs, anyhow"
asks the American, as we move on
again. Il just know that they're al
ways numbering people. and that's ali
do know"
"Well," said /, ''most of what /
know comes from Colonel Slieman and
Colonel Meadows Taylor, who were
the chief agents in puttingthem down.
The original system, ages ago, was
simply a continual human sacrifice to
Kali, the goddess of murder, from
whom Calcutta kali uttah, or
Kalis Templel took its name. The
theory was that the earth was over
peopled, and that Kali's servants,
the Thugs, had to clear off the super
fuous population by d little judicious
mudering every now and then. So
whenever they could way lay any
man in a lonely place, they strangled
him with a silk handkerchief, and
then buried him; and this they called
the good work" "
II wonder what they'd call a bad
work, Them mutters my companion.
"Well. this went on for ages upon
sasges, without any one having theleast
suspicion of it. Men kept disappear
inc here and there, and nobody
knew how. At first the murders were
simply a religious rite, without any
after-thought of plumber, but after
wards they began to combine robbery
with murder, and to d out as VIC
Tins those who were worth plumber
ing. However. the English had been in
India for years before anyone dream
ed that 'Thuggee' existed. At last a
Thug chief, being under sentence Tor
some crime, betrayed his comrades
to save his own life, and then the
whole story came out and the Thugs
we're seized and imprisoned. At first
the British commissioner Of the dis
rrict where the discovery was made
wouldn't believe that all these hor-
rors could have been going on so long
without being found ont, but when
the old chief dug up thirteen skeletons
ON the very spot where the commits
sioner's tent was pitched he began to
change his mind. But here we are
at the place."
We halt suddenly before q tall,
gray, gloomy building, at the door Of
which ] announce myself as a news
Saper correspondent, and we are at
once admitted, although the hindoo
janitor looks with no small wonder at
Mrs. Ker as she enters and asks
whether the bib logue lady is a cor
responder too.
On the other side OF the road stands
d high bamboo palisade, above which
peer the grass rhatehes OF a number
OF tiny native huts. The one narrow
entrance Of this enclosure is guarded
by q magnificent Sikh soldier-tall,
strong and shapely as a bronze stat
ne OF Hereules-whose bold, swarthy
lace and keen black ayes look very
picturesque beneath his crimson tur-
ban. After exchanging a word or two
with our conductor, he steps back
with a military salute to let us pass
In, and the next moment we are
standing amid the most formidable
gang OF murderers upon the face OF
the earth.
The theory that every man wears
on his conntenAnce the stamp OF his
nature s{Es true only within certain
limits. Many of the great criminals
whom I have seen bore in their faces a
terrible warning of what they were
but with the Thugs OF Japabur it is
not So. These human vampires who
now gather round me, every n OF
whom has taken more lives than
any public executioner in Europe, are
to tile outward eye q set OF q quiet.
slouciiing. meagre old men, who might
(be 4 gang OF beggars. a group OF harm
less village folk, a party ofsuperannu-
ated native workmen, o II anything on
earth but what they really are.
THAT the chief" whispers my
guide, pointing TO q small. lean, gray
beard with a white turbap, who is sit
ting before the nearest hut rocking o.
child on his knee, and strokingi its thin
little brown face with the hand that
she'd the blood OF his fellow men like
water.
ASK MN reJ0fn 4, now many
murders he has committed.
Al momentary CLEAN of cunning
wrinkles in the sunken eyes. The old
tiger is evidently suspicious, and
stands on bis guard.
~ can not TELL he answers, with an
q ~ eF ~ ..L..l ..-T~- -.-H. -.
cumstancss, has in it somethingghast-
didn't keen count OF them be-
You'd a hundredF'
Pretty well +" mutters the Inspec-
tor, abnt Colonel Taylor's prisoner,
Ameer Ali owned to T00.D
He must have been a nice young
man, that Amear ALI observed +.
You remember his saying, "Wefnaly
deciGseS MURDER the men directly az
ter our evening prayers
49, = 49, - At-LLA Z